Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe has called for a full investigation into the climategate affair, calling the actions of the scientists involved “criminal” and part of “the greatest scientific scandal of our generation”.

Inhofe has asked the Department of Justice to determine if climatologists, including Dr. Michael Mann of Pennsylvania State University and Dr. James Hansen of Columbia University and NASA, engaged in illegal activity to deliberately falsify data and mislead the public on the facts of global warming.

The Republican Senator also called for former Vice President Al Gore to be called back before the Senate to testify on the matter.

“In [Gore’s] science fiction movie, every assertion has been rebutted,” Inhofe stated at a hearing this morning.

Details of Inhofe’s action were revealed in a minority staff report from the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, of which he is ranking member.

[The] Minority Staff of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works believe the scientists involved may have violated fundamental ethical principles governing taxpayer-funded research and, in some cases, federal laws. In addition to these findings, we believe the emails and accompanying documents seriously compromise the IPCC -backed “consensus” and its central conclusion that anthropogenic emissions are inexorably leading to environmental catastrophes.

“The CRU controversy features e-mails from the world’s leading climate scientists — e-mails that show disturbing practices contrary to the practice of objective science and potentially federal law,” the report adds.

“The released CRU e-mails and documents display potentially unethical, and illegal, behavior,” it continues. “Moreover, there are e-mails discussing unjustified changes to data by federal employees and federal grantees. These and other issues raise questions about the lawful use of federal funds and potential ethical misconduct.”

As well as suggesting scientists were manipulating the data to reach predetermined conclusions, the minority report also charges that there was an agenda to obstruct the release of damaging information and counter-evidence, and that some climate scientists colluded to pressure journal editors not to publish work questioning the so called “consensus.”

“We knew they were cooking the science to support the flawed UN IPCC agenda,” Inhofe said this morning. “I suspect Climategate is only the beginning.”

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The report also points out possible criminal offences relating to Climategate, including a potential violation of the Shelby Amendment, which requires open access to the results of government-funded research, in addition to a violation of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) policies on scientific misconduct.

It also states that scientists involved could be in breach of the Federal False Statements and False Claims Acts, charges that could carry civil and criminal penalties.

Furthermore, an obstruction of Congress in Congressional Proceeds may constitute an obstruction of justice according to the report.

Inhofe’s call for a criminal investigation will include a request for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to re-examine the classification of Carbon Dioxide as a pollutant.

“The EPA accepted the IPCC’s erroneous claims wholesale, without doing its own independent review,” Inhofe said about the EPA’s decision to rely on information from the U.N.’s International Panel on Climate Change.

“So EPA’s endangerment finding rests on bad science,” he added.

An overturning of the EPA’s CO2 Endangerment Finding would decimate moves by the Obama Administration to regulate carbon emissions and introduce carbon taxes.

However, the proposed investigation will have to be approved by a Democratic majority that has previously blocked any attempt by Inhofe for investigations into climate change science.